Partial or complete loss of an individual's natural teeth, either or both at the upper and lower jaw, due to age, accident, diseases or other reasons has some serious effects on an individual, both functionally and socially. Lack of teeth poses several serious functional problems such as not being able to chew, speech difficulties, etc. Even more so, a smile with a full set of white teeth is considered something to be desired, i.e. esthetics play an important role in life.
While a denture can be accurately fitted to the alveolar ridge of an individual, it is difficult to retain a denture in position. That is, during normal chewing or talking, the denture has a tendency to ride up out of position on the alveolar ridge, causing speech difficulties, chewing difficulties, and general unsatisfactory use of a denture.
A denture is a removable dental prosthesis which has artificial teeth embedded in a denture base resembling the gum or gingiva. The denture base provides the support for the prosthesis by resting on the gingiva or over a support bar secured to the respective jaw bone by a plurality of dental implants. The underside of the denture base has a depression receptacle that receives at least a portion of the gingiva or support bar, so as to provide a snug, reversible fit of the denture.
In recent years practice has developed of permanently implanting dental implants (at times referred to as dental fixtures or posts) in the bone structure of the mouth. These permanent dental implants are made of hard material acceptable by the body's biological processes (e.g. titanium) and which are locked into position by bone growth. By utilization of the permanently installed implants in the mouth of the individual, the possibility then exists for more readily securing a denture in place either fixedly or removably.
WO06103648 discloses a removable denture system comprising a support beam fixedly attached to the individual's alveolar ridge above the mucous membrane by a plurality of dental implants, and a denture generally conforming with the dental parameters of the individual and integrated with a super-structure. The super-structure comprises at least a portion shaped in confirmation with the support beam, and a denture locking arrangement for removably though fixedly articulating the denture to the support beam preventing unintentional disengagement of the denture.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,243 discloses a denture attachment including a magnet body, to be embedded in a denture base, comprises a pair of soft magnetic alloy end plates, a non-magnetic alloy spacer disposed between the end plates, and a cap covering the magnet body, the end plates and the spacer except on the side of a coping. The attachment causes a magnetic attractive force of the magnet body to act on the coping of a soft magnetic alloy embedded in a pulp cavity of a tooth deprived of the crown, whereby the denture base is stabilized on gingiva. The magnet body is disposed with its N and S poles facing the end plates, respectively.